David Grove, the originator of Clean Language[1] and the innovator of many processes for working with autogenic (client-generated) metaphor, has done it again. He has created Clean Space, a fascinating new approach that uses emergence to model human perception and facilitate organic change. Steven Johnson notes the importance and ubiquity of emergence:

We have only recently begun to recognize it, yet it exists at every level of our lived experience. It is fast becoming clear that our lives revolve around the powers of emergence. An ant colony behaves with an intelligence no particular ant possesses; a brain is conscious although no particular brain cell is; a city develops districts and neighbourhoods no planner could impose. In each case, complex problems are solved by a profusion of relatively simple elements. Order arrives from the bottom up, not top down. Such systems display emergent behaviour: the movement from low-level rules to higher-level sophistication. (Cover of book)

Symbolic Modelling and Clean Space

Combining David Grove's work with the latest developments in self-organizing systems theory and cognitive linguistics resulted in Symbolic Modelling, described in our book, Metaphors in Mind. We regard Clean Space as an extension of Symbolic Modelling because, like Clean Language, it facilitates the client to self-model; it requires 'clean' interventions; and it works directly with the metaphoric realm.

Our description of Clean Space is derived from observing David Grove facilitating individuals in small groups during 2 or 3 day retreats. Over the last year we have been testing and refining our model, both in our private psychotherapy practice and with executive coaching clients in business. We have also introduced Clean Space to groups. At the NASA Goddard Space Center in Washington DC, Clean Space was used as a creativity process with 30 members of a cross-functional team. And we have used Symbolic Modelling and Clean Space over a four-day period to facilitate 80 members of The Findhorn Foundation spiritual community in Scotland to explore, clarify, plan and implement a joint outcome.[2]

Below we present a 'basic' version of how Clean Space can be applied in many contexts, in addition to psychotherapy. The process aims to facilitate people to experience new perspectives, insights and creativity in 15 to 90 minutes. (The more extensive process facilitates clients to work with multiple 'worldviews' or 'cosmologies' over several days.)

Universality of Space

Whenever we see something, we see it somewhere; whenever we hear a sound, it's coming from somewhere; and whenever we touch something, we feel it somewhere.

Likewise, whenever we create an image in our mind, we see it somewhere; whenever we hear a sound internally, we hear it coming from somewhere; and whenever we feel a feeling inside, we feel it somewhere.

Neuroscientists tell us there are no actual images, sounds or feelings in the brain, but subjectively it seems like there are. In other words, our representations are metaphors that exist in a mindspace -- a stage in the theatre of our mind where the play of consciousness is enacted.

Metaphors embody and define the intangible and abstract, but this limits and constrains perceptions and actions to those which make sense within the logic of the metaphor. Metaphors are therefore both descriptive and prescriptive. They can be a tool for creativity or a self-imposed prison. Either way, there are some metaphors we simply cannot do without, and space is one of them. Metaphors of space are everywhere:

A sense of direction

Where is my career going?

Moving forward

Things are looking up

One step at a time

Life path

Moving up in the world

Moving on

The way ahead

Rise to the top

On track

A turning point

Inflation is levelling out

It's all downhill from here

Down in the dumps

In the pit of despair

We're stuck

I'm going nowhere

How do we get out of this mess?

Following blindly

The roller-coaster of life

Over the hill

The deadline is approaching

Lead astray

Going round in circles

Put the past behind me

Space is so fundamental to perception that perhaps location should not be regarded as a quality (a submodality) of our sensory systems. Steven Pinker's view that the metaphor of space is more like the "medium of thought itself" may be more appropriate. He draws this conclusion because:

Location in space is one of the two fundamental metaphors in language, used for thousands of meanings. ... Many cognitive scientists (including me) have concluded from their research on language that a handful of concepts about places, paths, motions ... underlie the literal or figurative meanings of tens of thousands of words and constructions, not only in English but in every other language that has been studied. (pp. 354-357)

As you will see, Clean Space makes full use of the discovery that space is the medium or context for thought itself.

Spatial Sorting

Robert Dilts has made a significant contribution to NLP through the use of 'spatial sorting'. He has designed a number of processes such as Perceptual Positions, Neuro-Logical Levels, SCORE and Timeline that enable us to 'sort' and 'anchor' our thoughts and feelings into different physical places. In these processes the practitioner specifies a number of categories and allocates each of them a space. In Perceptual Positions for example, first, second, third and sometimes a fourth position are given a location by the facilitator. The facilitator provides the characteristics associated with these spaces, often with metaphors such as: 'seeing out of your own eyes', 'standing in the other person's shoes', 'a fly-on-the-wall position'. The facilitator guides the client through a sequence of moves from position to position -- usually with the liberal use of metaphors to instruct the client to 'leave that experience there', 'step out of that', etc. In these techniques the location of the space, the form of the perception, and the order of moves are to varying degrees predetermined by the facilitator.

Clean Space is like doing a mixture of Perceptual Positions, Neuro-Logical Levels, etc. without the facilitator defining any of the spaces; or deciding the category of experience allocated to the spaces; or predefining the number of steps. In Clean Space, each position is located by the client and its attributes are defined by the client. The whole process emerges out of the client's innate ability to, as Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner put it, "conceptually blend" their perception of metaphorical space with their perception of physical space.

A New Kind of Process

The philosophy behind Clean Space draws on the latest developments in self-organizing systems theory. Stephen Wolfram's mammoth 1200 page A New Kind of Science describes how he used simple programs (cellular automata) as metaphors for physical and biological systems. After 20 years research his conclusions are as simple as his programs, and as profound in their implications as the complex behavior those programs produce:

Very simple rules can produce endlessly complex behavior.

Emergent behavior is not predictable from the rules. The only way to know what happens is to set the program running and observe the outcome. (Life can be considered a program that has been running for 3 billion years.)

Traditional intuitions about how systems work are counterproductive when modelling complex systems. Therefore a new kind of intuition is required based on the observation and analysis of many examples of complex behavior emerging from simple interactions (we call this 'bottom-up modelling').

The basic Clean Space process is remarkably straightforward. There is a starting process, three simple routines which are repeated over and over, and a finishing process. Facilitating Clean Space requires only six questions and four directing statements. [See Figure 1]

FIGURE 1: The Basic Clean Space Process

Clean
Space is not like a traditional technique: the steps cannot be
predefined since neither you nor the client knows what will happen
next. Each move is contingent upon what has just been said or done and
on the logic of the client's information. How many spaces the client
identifies, their location, the order in which they are located, the
information emerging from each space, and the number of iterations are
determined during the process.

Clean Space is a developmental
model that recognises that complex-adaptive systems (people) learn
through embodied activity, feedback and iteration. The result is an
emergent property which was not predictable from the underlying rules
or initial conditions. Clean Space is a new way to utilize bottom-up
modelling in human psychology.

A New Kind of Facilitation

Because
Clean Space is so simple, the process so emergent, and the
interventions so clean, it requires a different kind of facilitation.
One that supports the client to self-model. That is, to construct a
model of the organization of their mindbody perceptions. [See Figure 2]

FIGURE 2

Guidelines for Facilitating Clean Space Process

1.

The aim of the process is:

For the client
to model a network of relationships between the spaces, rather than to
just develop the information contained within the spaces.

2.

The general format for the process is:

- The client starts by placing their desired outcome statement and locating Position 1.

- They are facilitated to use the Locating, Knowing and Returning routines iteratively.

- The client completes the process by returning to Position 1.

3.

Make minimal interventions:

- Remember you are facilitating the client to self-model.

- Change occurs as a result of the client's system self-reorganizing, not from your interventions.

- Allow the client's process to unfold organically, in its own way and at its own pace.

- Incorporate the client's exact words into your questions and directions, using as few of your own words as possible.

- Do not comment in any way on what is happening.

- Only ask one question at a time, and leave plenty of response-inviting pauses.

- The more psychoactive the space becomes the more the space will be your co-facilitator, and the less you will need to do.

4.

Iterate, Iterate, Iterate

Repeatedly return the client to Position 1 and to 'Sweet Spots' (spaces where there is a lot of new knowing).

5.

Keep the process moving

Only spend a
short time in each space. You can use Clean Language to briefly develop
the client's metaphors, but keep the process moving by inviting the
client to move to new spaces or to revisit existing spaces.

6.

Direct each question to

a particular space or group of spaces and make your gaze and gestures congruent with the location of the client's spaces.

7.

Use Clean Logic:

- Notice the spaces the client refers to implicitly, and invite them to move there.

- If the client seems to be talking from a different space than the one they are occupying, move them to that space.

-
Clients indicate a higher-level knowing when they name a group of
spaces, a relationship between spaces, or a metaphor for a
configuration of spaces (lines, shapes, angles, edges, etc.). Use the
client's word(s) for the grouping of spaces to refer to them as a whole.

8.

Finishing

Be sure the client completes
the process in Position 1. This is their 'control position' from which
they can notice any changes that have occurred during the session. It
is from here that they leave to continue their lives.

David Grove says, "your aim is for the client to establish a
network of relationships between the spaces." Once this configuration
is established, the client's natural ability to detect patterns and
make meaning, coupled with their desire to change, results in the
system learning from itself.

When you facilitate Clean Space,
your language, gaze and gestures must be clean. That is, all that you
say and do needs to be congruent with the client's mental landscape
from their perspective. This means resisting the temptation to add in
your own words. The moment you do this the client has to stop modelling
them self, and start modelling you. This applies not only to
meta-comments, reframes and Ericksonian language, but also to those
apparently innocuous additions such as "Tell me what you know from
there." The 'tell me' unnecessarily brings the facilitator into the
equation and implies a dialogue rather than an exploration by the
client of the logic of their own perceptions.

Space Speaks

Most
people naturally scale their inner landscape to fit the dimensions of
the physical space available. We have successfully facilitated clients
in small rooms as well as outside where some of their spaces were 200
metres apart.

The client's desired outcome can be anything they
want. It does not have to fulfil any 'Well-formedness Conditions' or
SMART criteria. It is important however, that the desired outcome is in
their own words, and written (or drawn) by their hand -- uncontaminated
by any comments, suggestions or leading questions from the facilitator.
The client may rewrite their statement at any time during the process.
You may also find that the client starts moving to new spaces and
returning to existing spaces of their own accord. When this happens you
know they are self-modelling.

If the client wants to move to a
space outside the room or building, encourage them to do so if that is
appropriate. If not, they can find what David Grove calls a 'proxy
space' which can stand for the one they are unable to occupy
physically. We suggest you say something like: 'Find a space in here
that represents or stands for [client's words for the space outside].'

Once
space becomes psychoactive it is imbued with meaning, and the client is
likely to discover deep significance in the coincidence of events and
the location of objects. These synchronicities should be incorporated
into the process. For example, a client who wanted to "discover his
next steps" was being taken though the Clean Space process in a public
park. He was standing in one of his spaces when he turned to see a
workman in a pond pulling a "No Waiting" sign out of the water. As
client and facilitator watched in amazement, wondering whether they
should believe their eyes, the workman fished around under the water
and brought a second "No Waiting" sign to the surface. The client
exclaimed, "I might be able to ignore one sign, but not two!" The
facilitator simply replied, "Find a space that knows about not being
able to ignore two signs."

The Clean Space process can easily
continue across sessions. At the end of a session, invite the client to
map the configuration of their spaces. At the start of the following
session, the client can replace their desired outcome and position
labels as before. When they are in Position 1, they can notice if
anything has changed. Whether it has or not, the next phase of
self-modelling will have already begun.

Concluding Remarks

With
Clean Space the client lays out the content of their mind in an
embodied process that enables them to figure out (self-model) how it
all fits together. Amazingly, no specific change technique is required.
Clean Space relies on the client's natural ability to utilize
emergence. Change happens organically as a result of the client's
system becoming more aware of its own organization. As Milton Erickson
said, "Therapy results from an inner resynthesis of the patient's
behavior achieved by the patient himself" (quoted by Ernest Rossi).

Clean
Space is a very flexible process that can be adapted in hundreds of
ways. It can be used by individuals to solve problems, to stimulate
creativity, as a way to prepare for exams (it's like walking around
your own personalized mind map), and as a generative development
process. We have also used it with couples, in conflict resolution and
negotiation, and in group facilitation.

Clean Space can easily
be incorporated into other methodologies. However, we strongly
recommend that you first trial it several times in its pure form. Not
only will your clients discover some surprising things about
themselves, you are likely to notice how little you need to do.
Generally, the less you try to make something happen, the more
something unexpectedly productive happens.

To appreciate the
full implication of Clean Space you will need to experience it from the
client's perspective. Afterwards you will have a better idea of how
creating a psychoactive perceptual space and moving around it engages
much more than ordinary cognition.

We'll leave the last word to
one of our clients: "I couldn't see how standing on another piece of
carpet could make any difference, and yet when I did, I instantly had
access to new knowledge, and that opened up a completely new
perspective."

Thanks
to the London Clean Language and the Metaphor Practice and Research Groups
for their continued exploration, challenge and development of our model
of Clean Space. And to Philip Harland and Phil Swallow for their useful
feedback on this article.

Penny Tompkins & James Lawley

Penny and James are supervising neurolinguistic psychotherapists – registered with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy since 1993 – coaches in business, certified NLP trainers, and founders of The Developing Company.They have provided
consultancy to organisations as diverse as GlaxoSmithKline, Yale
University Child Study Center, NASA Goddard Space Center and the
Findhorn Spiritual Community in Northern Scotland.